


Lunar Effect

by decadent_mousse



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Blood and Injury, Body Horror, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-08-02
Packaged: 2018-02-11 11:55:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2067210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadent_mousse/pseuds/decadent_mousse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermann has an unusual condition.  Newt helps out and gets a little more than he bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lunar Effect

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU based on a conversation I had with [geniusbee](http://geniusbee.tumblr.com/) and [cypress_tree](http://archiveofourown.org/users/cypress_tree) on Twitter. <3
> 
> Basically everything is the same, except Hermann happens to be a werewolf.

Newt was pretty sure the full moon was getting to him a little bit, making him restless.  He’d finished up in the lab early but been too wired to sleep, so he figured he might as well just go see how Hermann was doing.  He grabbed all the usual stuff from Hermann’s room and went over the mental checklist in his head.  Once he was sure he had everything he needed, he made his way down to the usual spot.  

He was a couple hours earlier than usual, but if he spread one of the blankets out on the floor he was pretty sure he could get comfortable – well, _comfortable-ish_ – and he had plenty of apps on his phone to keep him occupied in the meantime.

He settled down outside the door and kept an ear out for any noises.  It was pretty quiet in there.  Unusually quiet.  

“Hey, you okay in there?”  He heard a scuffling sound followed by a low growl that sounded pretty close to to the vicinity of his elbow, even if there was a reinforced steel door between them.  “Okay, just checking!  Geez!”

The minutes ticked by.  Newt could hear Hermann pacing restlessly, and a couple of times he heard him slam against the walls like he was testing them for weaknesses.  

“Hey, cut that out!  Medical’s starting to wonder where stuff’s disappearing to, so I could only get ahold of small band-aids this time.  If you hurt yourself like you did a few months ago, we’re gonna be in trouble, man.  I’ll have to… I don’t know, stick twenty band-aids on it and hope for the best, I guess.”

Hermann-wolf snorted loudly, and Newt wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be a response or not.  There were times his reactions almost seemed like intelligent responses, but he still wasn’t exactly sure if Hermann could actually understand him when he was a wolf or if he was just reacting to the tone of his voice.

He quieted down for awhile after that and Newt figured that was the end of it.

...Until Hermann slammed into the door abruptly ten minutes later.  Newt leapt up and away so fast he got tangled in his own feet, fell, and ended up half-crawling to the wall opposite the door.

"Whoa!"

The door shook violently, and Newt wondered if it would hold up if Hermann kept smashing into it like that.  It was a pretty heavy-duty door, sure, but Newt was pretty sure they hadn’t built these rooms with werewolf containment in mind.  The wolf slammed into it again.  He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or not, but he thought he heard the metal groan.

_Shit.  Oh shit,  this is bad.  Really, really bad._

He wasn't sure what to do if Hermann got out.  They were in a pretty secluded area of the Shatterdome, but a wolf – especially a _were_ wolf – could cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time.  Newt wasn't sure if Hermann-wolf would stick to the nearby corridors if he was given the option, and if he wandered far and found _people_ …  That wouldn’t be good – for them _or_ for Hermann.

He slammed into the door again, and yeah, the door was _definitely_ not going to hold up under much more of that – the hinges were starting to groan.  Newt's brain wheeled around frantically trying to come up with a solution that didn't involve using the gun and bullets Hermann had insisted on giving him at the start of their arrangement.  

Newt had laughed incredulously when Hermann had given the gun to him, and even harder when he’d given him the silver bullets.

_“Dude, are you_ serious _?”_

_“If we’re going to do this, I want you to take safety precautions.”_

He wasn’t laughing now.

He didn’t want to hurt Hermann, and he definitely didn’t want to have to _kill_ him.  Even if it came down to having to defend himself, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to bring himself to pull the trigger.  Also, he had kind of… forgotten the gun and left it back in his room.  Oops.

The door shook again, and before Newt could shout at him to _stop_ , Hermann let out a blood-curdling howl of pain and after a faint shuffling sound, the door didn’t shake again.

"Hermann?!"

It was so quiet now, Newt could hear the blood pounding in his ears.

A different kind of panic welled up inside him.  "Hermann?  Buddy?  Are you okay?"

Still nothing.  He didn't expect an answer, obviously, but usually Hermann-wolf responded to his voice – usually pretty aggressively.   _"The wolf must find you as charming as I do,"_ Hermann had replied with a sarcastic eye-roll when Newt had mentioned it one morning.

It took Newt a few seconds longer than usual to open the food slot on the door because his hands were shaking a little bit.  Or a lot – okay, they were shaking a lot.  He finally got it open and peeked inside and his heart plummeted down into his stomach – further than that, even, he thought he could feel it knocking around somewhere down in his boots.

There was a trail of blood leading from the door to the corner of the room.  Hermann-wolf was curled up there, bleeding from a nasty gash across his snout.  He was conscious, but he wasn't moving – he just laid there, blinking at the door warily.

Newt glanced down at where he’d laid the first aid kit when he’d settled down beside the door, then he looked at the time on his phone.  It was close to dawn, but not close enough.  Still, he couldn’t just leave Hermann bleeding like that, could he?  

Back in February he’d come in and found Hermann after he’d changed back,  bleeding so badly he’d had to rush him to the infirmary and make up some story about a lab accident that thankfully nobody investigated too closely.  He _still_ wasn’t sure how Hermann had managed to hurt himself so bad that time.  This time wasn’t quite _that_ bad, but he really didn’t want to leave him there to bleed for however long it would take for him to change back into human form.

He reached down and unbolted the locks on the door.  It creaked open with a low, rusty groan – which didn’t exactly reassure Newt about its ability to contain a large angry animal.  Hermann-wolf lifted his head and growled warningly when Newt stepped inside.

His heart felt like it was going to hammer out of his chest.  He tried his best to stay calm.  Animals could sense fear, right?  Besides, wolf or not, this was still _Hermann_.  He might growl and glare, but he probably wasn’t any more likely to rip Newt’s head off than he was when he wasn’t all furry and wolven.  

Yeah, okay, looking back at some of their more heated arguments, that wasn’t the most comforting thought.  

“Hey, hey,” he said softly, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice as he carefully approached Hermann.  “Don’t bite the hand that brings you blankets and Godzilla band-aids, dude.”

Hermann glared at him balefully with golden eyes, and it was kind of a relief because there was a lot more Hermann in that look than there was wolf.  Newt was pretty sure that was a sign that he was close to–

Hermann yelped and whined loudly as the sound of cracking and popping bones filled the room and it made Newt wince in sympathy.  His furred skin rippled and shrank across his bones and sort of… it didn’t really _melt_ , but Newt wasn’t really sure how else to describe it, because that’s what it kind of looked like – the fur got sort of wet looking and _moved_ around and disappeared as the skin sort of split apart and reformed again around his shifting bones and muscle.  He’d seen it happen a couple times before, but never up close.  It was pretty cool-looking, but also pretty painful looking.

Newt wanted to go to him and… he wasn’t sure what – try to comfort him through it, maybe, but he figured _that_ was a good way to get his face ripped off, so he held himself back.  He waited.

He hated waiting.  It probably didn’t really take that long for Hermann to change back, but it sure _felt_ like it took forever.  He wondered if it felt that way for Hermann – he really, really hoped not.  

Hermann curled up on the floor, shivering, and Newt knelt down beside him and wrapped the blanket around him.  

“Newton,” Hermann whispered, voice hoarse.  

“Hey,” Newt replied like he hadn’t just watched his lab partner transform from a wolf back into a human.  “Good morning.  How are you feeling?”

He ignored the question.  “You... were in here already,” he said, in a betrayed tone, “before I transformed back.”

“Dude, you– you howled like _really_ loud and then you weren’t moving around much and I–” he swallowed hard, “–I was worried.  So yeah, I came in early, I’m sorry.”

“I could have hurt you, or worse.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t.”

“I could have gotten _out_.”

“Yeah, but you _didn’t_!”

Hermann scowled at him, then grimaced and gingerly touched the bridge of his nose with his fingers.  They came away red with blood.  

“See, that’s what I’m talking about.  Here.”  Newt fished a tube of antiseptic and a handkerchief out of his pants pocket and gently eased Hermann’s head onto his lap.

Hermann sighed wetly, but didn’t protest – which just went to show just how tired and wrung out he was – also bleeding.  Though Newt was a little embarrassed to discover that the wound didn’t look nearly as bad as it had when Hermann had been a wolf.  It didn’t look _great_ , but it wasn’t bleeding as heavily.

He gently wiped the blood away and poked at Hermann’s nose gently, letting out a hurried “sorry, sorry” when Hermann let out a sharp hiss of pain.  “I don’t think it’s broken.”

“What happened?”

“You smashed yourself against the door.  How do you feel?”

“Like I smashed myself against a door,” Hermann replied dryly.

He dabbed the antiseptic across Hermann’s nose.  "Let me know if anything hurts, okay?"

Hermann rolled his eyes.  "My nose hurts, obviously."

Newt resisted the urge to flick him on the nose.  That probably wouldn’t have been great first aid protocol.  "Dude, I meant if anything _else_ hurts."

The other man looked at him for a long moment before saying, quietly, "I'm alright, Newton.  I’ve endured worse.”

He’d seen some of the injuries Hermann had walked into the lab with a few times in the past.  Those were just the ones he’d caught – he didn’t want to think about how many Hermann had successfully hidden from him and everyone else over the years.  Some mornings he would come in looking completely wrecked, and other times he wouldn’t show up at all – Newt would get a terse email explaining that Hermann wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be coming in that day.  

The idea of Hermann getting hurt so bad he couldn’t leave his room – tending to his own injuries and lying in bed because he didn’t have the energy for anything else – made something in Newt’s chest clench.

“Newton.”

He hadn’t realized he’d been lightly rubbing the bridge of Hermann’s nose for longer than he needed to until Hermann reached up and gently grabbed ahold of his wrist.  

He swallowed hard and asked, “Do you want a regular band-aid or a neon-colored one?”

“I thought you said they were Godzilla-themed.”

“They are – they're Godzilla-themed _and_ neon-colored.  How about this one?”  He waved a bright blue band-aid in front of Hermann’s face with his free hand.

“While that’s very cute, I’d much rather not attract _more_ attention to my conspicuous face wound.”

“Man, what a killjoy.”

“I’m sorry to have ruined your plans to make my face look like a kindergarten student’s art project.”  His tone was kind of sarcastic, but he still had ahold of Newt’s wrist and he was lightly stroking the underside of it.  It felt nice – relaxing, which he was pretty sure was why Hermann was doing it.

“I, uh, really hate to say this, but I need both hands for a minute.”

Hermann loosened his hold and Newt reluctantly pulled his hand away so he could lay the pad of the band-aid across the gash.  He slowly peeled back the plastic coverings as he spread it across Hermann’s nose, careful not to get it on there too tight.  

“...That wasn’t the blue one, was it?” Hermann asked, trying to look at his noise and only succeeding in looking kind of cross-eyed for a second.

“Ahaha, no, it wasn’t.  It was a kind of peachy colored one.  It should blend right in – uh, aside from the little Godzillas, anyway.  Does it hurt?”

“It stings.  And aches, somewhat, but it’s fine.”

“Good,” Newt grinned.  “You know, I’m getting pretty good at this first aid stuff.”

“You’re… not bad at it.”

“Oh wow, dude, was that a compliment?  Did that _hurt_?”

He gave him a look.

Newt snickered and leaned back against the wall, careful not to jostle Hermann too much.  Now that all the “Oh God, Hermann’s going to eat me” adrenaline was wearing off, he was feeling kind of wiped out.  “Did you want to get out of here?”

Hermann sighed and wrapped the blanket around himself tighter with a wince.  “I’m… not sure that I have it in me to go anywhere at the moment.”  He added, more softly.  “You don’t have to stay.”

“I want to.  I mean, if– if _you_ want me to.  I’d like to.”

He didn’t answer, and for a second Newt thought he was going to tell him to take a hike, but then he reached over and took Newt’s hand and started doing that thing again – that soft stroking _thing_ he’d been doing earlier up and down his wrist.  Newt tried to play it cool, but he found himself grinning so hard his face felt like it was going to break in half and his heart danced around a little bit.

With his other hand, he ran his fingers lightly through Hermann’s hair.  The corners of Hermann’s mouth quirked upward to form a tired smile.

Four hours later they would both pick themselves up off the floor and regret sitting – and lying – on a glorified slab of concrete for as long as they did, but for now they were comfortable enough and ten minutes later they were both asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I definitely have a lot more thoughts and headcanons for this AU and will probably write more at some point!
> 
> A couple notes: Hermann's been a werewolf for a long time at this point, but only a couple people know about it. He didn't actually decide to confide in Newt about his condition - Newt found out by accident about a year prior to this fic and offered to help Hermann out with aftercare. Also Hermann and Newt aren't in a romantic relationship at this particular point in the AU, but they're definitely well on their way to heading in that direction.


End file.
